The delivery of audio and/or video information over the Internet has experienced considerable growth in recent years, and this form of media is expected to spread even further in the future as bandwidth capabilities expand and the general public becomes more familiar with Internet technology. Internet broadcasting (also referred to as webcasting or netcasting) includes delivering live or delayed versions of sound or video programing by streaming that programming to connected users. Typically, either a unique content stream is unicast to each intended recipient or a common content stream is multicast to a set of intended recipients. At the listener/viewer's end, hearing or viewing Internet broadcasts requires a computer network Internet connection and an appropriate audio/video player application such as RealPlayer™ from Real Networks, Inc. or Windows Media Player™ from Microsoft Corp—although generally any suitable multimedia player application may be used. Indeed, due to the popularity of streaming media over the Internet, several Internet radio and Internet television World Wide Web (“Web”) sites that simultaneously distribute content over a number of channels/stations have been proposed or developed.
For example, International Patent Application No. PCT/US00/07175 assigned to Eclectic Radio Co., Inc. and published as International Publication No. WO 00/59227 on Oct. 5, 2000 describes a system for Internet and Intranet broadcast channel creation and management. The system offers audio automation and webcast automation so that multiple webcast channels, or stations, can be created and managed, including Internet radio, Internet television, and scheduled Website publishing. The channels are run using a program schedule created by the webcaster, or by using the system to automatically determine a program schedule using criteria provided by the webcaster or listener. Statutory performance license compliance and reporting is automatically provided for along with automatic advertising insertion. Monitoring and alerting functionality is also provided.
In addition, Internet radio systems, such as the Radio.Sonicnet Web site run by MTV Networks or the previously available Imagine Radio™ Web site launched in 1998 by Imagine Radio Inc., provide listeners with the ability to customize radio or audio programming over the Internet. These systems broadcast a number of site-programmed music stations and also permit listeners to create and customize their own radio stations. In the site-programmed stations, selections or songs are played according to quasi-random algorithms that may be further influenced by listeners' ratings during a currently-playing selection, since the ratings change the propensity of that song to be replayed in the future. Listeners wanting a more customized experience can register with the site and create their own personal station by individually selecting their favorite artists and rating those artists to influence how often that artist is heard. The personal preferences of a listener-created station may be viewed or changed by the creator, e.g., at the system's Web site or through an edit button on the listener's tuner. Personalized stations may also be made publicly available to other listeners. The web-based tuner used by listeners may include an interface for displaying information such as the artist name, song title, and album name. Links are also provided for additional information on artists or to purchase the corresponding recording. Advertising is also inserted both within the radio programming itself and in banner ads displayed on the tuner.
With the rapidly increasing popularity and growth of Internet content delivery systems, the amount of information, e.g., musical content in the case of Internet radio, and the number of stations that must be managed across one or more Web broadcast sites is vast. Consequently, there is a need for a comprehensive, effective, and efficient content management system that has the capability and flexibility to scale with the growth of the broadcast/distribution system and the release of new content as well as the ability to support a number of different management users. It would further be desirable if the content management system could more readily facilitate and ensure compliance with statutory or other licensing regimes, provide for a greater ability to keep station content current, and efficiently enable the generation of detailed reports on content-specific broadcast information.